Photography Gig, QR Codes & Marketing, & Seeking Info on GooglePlay

In-Person Doings

I met with the committee putting together the yearly event, Literary Harvest, for the Central Oregon Writers Guild last week. I volunteered to sell the chap books during intermission and to take the photos. It’s my first photography gig [unpaid], but cool. I shall practice portraits on the cats and Husband Unit over the next week.

I’m also in the group tallying the scores on the entries for the contest. We’re meeting this afternoon.

Marketing

The presentation on marketing last week was really powerful. One thing I did was print new business cards.

I’ll be handing them out at the sci-fi convention in Portland this November. I hope I finally get to go.

I had heard of QR Codes before — those funky looking square things for smart phones — but hadn’t used them. I’ll be sure to put them on everything I print from now on. I also put them on my FB and Twitter headers. Got a few messages that people used them and liked that I did that. You can get QR codes for free.

Laura Eno is part of From Stage Door Shadows, a collection of short stories. I’ve noted several blogosphere writer names on the list of authors in this anthology. Awesome.

Writers Desk

Still madly working on Boomtown Craze. Several fans have nudged me this week on FB and Twitter to get my fingers in gear. Nothing like a little pressure from the fan base for some motivation.

The Renaissance of Hetty Locklear should be completed by Wednesday and ready to go. I tweaked her cover, redid the blurb, and am gearing up for the next launch. Category is decided: New Adult Urban Fantasy [with a contemporary sci-fi twist].

One of my astronomy pals last week was telling me about Google Play. He has an Android. Apparently, it’s the equivalent of iTunes for Androids and Blackberries and the like. Has anyone uploaded to Google Play?Funny when I Googled it, I didn’t find much information. I found how to upload, but was wondering if anyone has any experience distributing through them.

I use QR codes on my marketing postcards – unfortunately, I’m never too sure where I should hand them out. I tend to leave them on restaurant tables along with the tip. My original idea was I could create a paper trail around town, but it’s not worked out as well as I’d hoped. Never mind, QR codes are great 🙂

Looks like you have been super busy in the writing department. That’s awesome news. Pat yourself on the back- you have gotten way farther than me. LOL
I tagged you in a challenge on my blog today. Happy Friday.

Hetty’s almost ready? Wednesday, you say? So… when will it be released? I’ve been terribly excited about it.

Let us know what you find about Google Play. The hubby just got a Google Nexus tablet, I will check it out. I bought a book on it but didn’t pay much attention (hubby asked what book I wanted, I called out a title, that was my involvement.)

QR Codes are fantastic. I even have one on my print book, so people can use it to go to the website with my writing.

As for Google Play, I haven’t heard much good about it. They price cut drastically (the lowest I’ve heard is an author’s ebook marked down to $0.49), so other retailers like Amazon price match when you don’t want them to. Also, I’ve heard that there is a lack in customer service and a lack of sales. All Androids have the ability to download Kindle and Nook apps to use rather than Google Play.

Love the photo at the top! I just heard about QRvoice http://qrvoice.net/ this morning, which generates code for spoken messages. It looks fun to play with. Unfortunately, I don’t know about Google Play either.

I posted on QR codes last year- after I learned about them. I got a funny reaction to them but I thought they were rather cool. Now people understand them better I think. Nice flower (flower?) pic. Cheers!

You’ll do fine with photographs. When you arrive, check the available light settings on your camera as each venue is different. I used to take photos for work team days and other functions. Focus on the main points. Good luck. A variety of shots give you more options. Hope you’ll be able to share some of them. If you can photograph the stars, people will be no problem.